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“You don’t bring a squirt gun to a fight where the other guys have AK-47s,” he said in a telephone interview. “I will tell you this: We’re fearless.”

Younger brother Tom Steyer, 56, splashed onto the national radar last fall with huge investments in the Virginia governor’s race that helped boost Democrat Terry McAuliffe to a slim victory. He recently pledged to spend at least $100 million on the fall campaign to knock out candidates who don’t share his views on the urgency of combating global warming.

Skeptics have suggested Tom Steyer’s influence on electoral politics may be limited, despite his wealth, by his narrow focus on climate change. His big brother’s entry into politics changes that equation, vastly expanding the issues that the Steyers will engage on — and raising inevitable questions about whether they are seeking to become the liberal answer to the Koch brothers.

While Tom Steyer seems a bit uneasy with the comparison, Jim Steyer embraces it. “I take that as a compliment,” he said.

He makes clear the brothers’ ambitions are no small thing: “We are trying to change the world.”

The biggest potential asset Jim Steyer brings to partnership is his link to the grassroots. Nearly a million parents and 145,000 teachers subscribe to ratings services he runs to assess the quality of children’s TV programs, video games and educational apps.

Jim Steyer sees them as an untapped political force. And he intends to mobilize them. “Kids deserve a voice as powerful as the NRA is for gun owners, as powerful as the AARP is for seniors,” he said, “and we are going to deliver that.”

Jim Steyer’s interests are wider than his brother’s; he has focused on education, technology, poverty and children’s privacy.

He also has a broader network than his brother. While Tom has worked almost exclusively with Democrats, Jim Steyer counts many Republicans as friends and allies. Margaret Spellings, the education secretary for President George W. Bush, calls him a “ball of fire” with “unbounded” passion and energy. Top GOP strategist Mark McKinnon is so much a fan that he agreed to serve on the board of Steyer’s new 501(c)4 advocacy group.

Those in his orbit say he is relentless — in a friendly, hyperactive sort of way — about cajoling them into financing his ventures and backing his ambitions. McKinnon, for instance, doesn’t remember exactly how he met Jim but knows it was no accident: “He figured I could help him, and he found me.” That’s how most people meet Jim Steyer, he added. “He’s connected to more big names than Kevin Bacon,” he said.

Indeed, Jim Steyer’s star-studded network of friends spans power centers from Silicon Valley to Hollywood to Wall Street to the White House. A conversation with him whirls like a carousel through the social register as he drops name after big name.

“He’s a force of nature,” said Evan Marwell, who has worked with Jim on connecting schools to the internet. “He’s got an incredible network and he uses that network.”

Jim Steyer made many of those connections while teaching political science classes at Stanford over the past 25 years.

His former students include New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and National Security Adviser Susan Rice. Steyer also taught Chelsea Clinton and can’t stop raving about her. She was a “star student,” he said, impressing him so much that he hired her as a teaching assistant and research aide.

Steyer was close with the Clintons long before Chelsea arrived on campus. He met Hillary Clinton 25 years ago, he said, through her work for the Children’s Defense Fund. He raves about her, too.

Despite his loyalty to the Clintons, Steyer has tried to remain nonpartisan in recent decades to protect the integrity of his nonprofits. A registered independent, he says with pride that he does not donate to political candidates. Ever.

Told that campaign finance records show he made a $2,300 donation to Hillary Clinton in 2007, he falls uncharacteristically silent for a moment. Must be from his wife, he says.

But it’s in his name.

“Hillary?” he asks. Another pause. “OK,” he says finally, sounding sheepish. “One time. By mistake.” (The records also show a contribution to John Kerry in 2002, but no other state or federal donations.)

Steyer’s thin record in national politics to date points up one difference between the Steyer brothers and the Koch brothers.

Here’s another: Both Charles and David Koch are billionaires many times over; the latest Forbes rankings pegs their assets at $34 billion apiece. Tom Steyer, who made his fortune running a hedge fund, is a billionaire of a much smaller magnitude — Forbes estimates his wealth at $1.4 billion. And Jim is no billionaire at all. He just happens to know a lot of them and has no doubts they’ll help him fund his political drive. (He won’t disclose his own resources but says he’ll be relying on fundraising, not taking out his checkbook.)

Some analysts are skeptical that the Steyers will ever match the Kochs in political savvy. Their issues — education, the environment, poverty — are decidedly second tier, said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist. The Koch brothers, by contrast, “pay attention to the story of the day,” he said, and latch on to “front-burner issues” to draw in grass-roots activists and amplify their own political influence.